Page 11 of Mafia Doctor's Secret Baby

“What do you know about her?” he asks, leaning forward and furrowing his brow.

“Next to nothing,” I admit. “She didn’t seem to want to admit it to me, so I guess she wants to raise this kid alone. Doesn’t want me to have anything to do with it.”

“And you?” he presses. “You want anything to do with it?”

My mind flashes back to the child in her arms—the mess of dark hair, those striking eyes, the sweet, soft, milky scent of her. Even though I know it’s all kind of crazy, I shrug.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I mean, this is my fucking daughter we’re talking about. And I could have gone my whole life without knowing about her?—”

“Hey, it can’t come as that much of a shock,” Emil jokes. “With how much pussy you go through, you’ve got to have a few children out there you don’t know about…”

“Oh, don’t even get me thinking about that,” I protest, raising a hand to silence him. “I’ve been going through all the girls I’ve been with since I found out about this shit, and I can’t help but wonder…”

I trail off, stopping myself before I can go any further. I know it doesn’t bear thinking about, that I’m better off keeping my head down and focusing on what I know has happened, not what I think might have.

“So what the fuck are you going to do about this?” Emil asks me.

“I have no idea,” I confess. “I mean, I don’t want to be some deadbeat dad who’s got nothing to do with his kid’s life, but at the same time…”

I leave the words hanging in the air. We both know what I’m getting at. After everything that has happened, there’s no way to ignore how fucking dangerous it would be for us to bring a childinto all of this. These fuckers, the ones who have targeted our family, they will do anything in their power to bring us down, and that means exploiting any weak spot in the process. As much as I don’t see myself as weak, this child could be a way for them to force my hand—let alone her mother…

“No,” Emil says, shaking his head. “No, I have an idea of what you’re going to do. And that’s keep as far from this kid and her mother as you can, you hear me?”

I grimace. I know he’s right, of course, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear it from him right now.

“We’re living in the same city,” I remind him. “I don’t know if it’s going to be that easy…”

“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy,” he replies. “I’m telling you that you need to think of the best option for everyone. You keep out of this, and you don’t have to burden yourself with a child—and you don’t put that kid or her mother in the middle of something they don’t know anything about.”

I nod slowly. I’m listening, I am, but it’s hard to force his words to go into my head right now, to really sink into my mind in a way that matters. I don’t want to just pretend like none of this happened. I can’t just…walk away from my daughter, can I?

Even thinking of myself as a father is the kind of shit that makes my head spin. I’ve never wanted to be a dad before—at least, not like this. Maybe I pictured settling down with some woman in the far-off distant future, building a family the same way my father did with my mother. But this—this is something far different. This is the kind of mess I can’t say that I ever intended to get myself caught up in, and now that I’m in the middle of it, I have no idea how the hell I’m meant to navigate it.

“Don’t bring anyone else into this, Luca,” Emil warns me, his voice low. “You know how tough things are right now. One wrong move, and they could pull this girl into this mess too…”

I nod. I know he’s right. And that statement alone is enough to get me rethinking things. Because the thought of that little girl getting dragged into our mess is enough to make me stop dead in my tracks. She’s a baby, a fucking infant; she’s barely even taken her first breath. And now she might be facing off against some of the most dangerous fuckers in the country.

I reach for the bottle and pour myself another generous helping of scotch. I’m going to need it if I’m going to keep my head—and if I’m going to make it through the next few months without seeking out my daughter again.

Even if all I want to do right now is hold her in my arms and stare down into those sweet gray eyes.

5

KATIE

I stand outside his office,staring at the name on the bronze placard in front of me.

Dr. Luca Mariana.

I roll the name around my mind, testing how it feels—Luca Mariana, the father of my child, the father of the little girl who’s waiting for me right now back at my apartment.

She’s nearly six weeks old now, and I can barely believe how quickly the time has gone—Cara has been there for me pretty much every single day, making sure I have everything I need, fussing over me at every chance she gets. When I told her casually that I needed to get some fresh air and take a walk after being cooped up and recovering for the last few weeks, she practically chased me out the door, clearly glad to have some alone time with her niece.

“You get out!” she assured me, as I stood there in the doorway, fidgeting and wondering if this was the right thing. “You’ve already pumped, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but…”

“She’s asleep,” she reminded me, cradling Polly in her arms. “She’s not even going to notice you’re gone. Take a couple of hours to yourself, okay?”

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